Bryan Singer Says Marvel and Fox Battle 'Is Not Healthy'

May 22, 2014 (8:16 am) GMT

The 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' helmer calls the comparison between 'The Avengers' and 'X-Men' is 'ludicrous.'

Bryan Singer weighs in on the growing rivalry between Marvel and Fox following the former's move to include Quicksilver, who will appear in "X-Men: Days of Future Past", to "Avengers: Age of Ultron" ensemble along with his twin sister Scarlett Witch. In an interview with SciFiNow, the "X-Men: Days of Future Past" director says of the battle, "It's not healthy for us."

"I'll tell you why: they're both comic-books and at some point you can expand the universes, that's where the comparison ends," he explains. "The Marvel universes - particularly Avengers and Iron Man - are... and it sounds defensive, and it is defensive, but only because people make comparisons between [Days of Future Past] and 'The Avengers', which is ludicrous."

"The Avengers is a mash-up of massive single character franchises of incredibly familiar characters and Iron Man. And did I mention Iron Man? Oh, and by the way - Iron Man," Singer adds. "They are huge, colossal franchises that are peppered with all these other characters that are, again, extremely famous."

"And so yes, Fox will at some point synergise [the X-Men] characters and that process is slowly beginning, but it's very different than taking movies that gross close to a billion dollars and then pushing them together into these giant broad movies," he continues. "If you want to give me Robert Downey Jr. in a metal suit and have him join the X-Men, then yes, let's go head-to-head [with Marvel Studios]."

In a separate chat with IGN, "X-Men" star Hugh Jackman expresses his desire to see a crossover between the two franchises, particularly his character joining the Earth Mightiest Heroes. "I would love to see him as part of the Avengers," he says. "Because there's a great dysfunction among that team, and I think Wolverine would fit right into that. He'd like that."

"There's no doubt he'd get in a fight with Hulk at some point," he adds. "Those two bad, rage-filled characters are going to square off at some point. It would be quite fun. I don't know how much fun to shoot it would be because I'm sure I'd be on the worst end of it, but hey, he can heal."